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Former Vatican Ambassador in Baghdad Looks Ahead to Pope Francis’ Trip to Iraq

Pope Francis greets Cardinal Fernando Filoni, newly appointed Grand Master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre, during his visit to Rome�s Piazza di Spagna to venerate the statue of the Immaculate Conception overlooking the Spanish Steps on Dec. 8, 2019.

Daniel Ibanez
Pope Francis greets Cardinal Fernando Filoni, newly appointed Grand Master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre, during his visit to Rome’s Piazza di Spagna to venerate the statue of the Immaculate Conception overlooking the Spanish Steps on Dec. 8, 2019.

The cardinal pointed out that one of the churches that Pope Francis will visit in Baghdad — the Syriac Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of Salvation — was the site of a suicide attack by the Islamic State during Sunday Mass in 2010 in which more than 50 people were killed.